ORIGIN

1978 Alfa Romeo Alfetta

This 1978 Alfa Romeo Alfetta Sports Sedan is said to be an excellent driver and has the rare Euro lights and grille. It was owned and maintained for several years by the owner of a well known Alfa shop and looks good in blue. Find it here on eBay in Novi, Michigan with no reserve.

Steve3po – wow, another person with a 79 sport sedan in Seattle! I thought I was unique. I drive mine as a semi-daily driver (it is in rotation with two other cars). I went through mine and rust proofed it before it desolved- pulling off fenders, etc., to get at all the tough to reach spots. The A pillars are the problem – Alfa filled them with some kind of foam so you can’t get in there even with a flex-wand. And they like to rust… Other than the omission of rust proofing and flimsy interior trim, this is a great Alfa!

@ Walter Gomez: It’s also very much better than the BMW’s semi-trailing arms! The (stock) 2002 was generally okay, if a tad unsure in a hard corner, but the 320 was just lousy. All that design had going for it was that it was better than swing axles and cheaper to build than either multi-link or DeDion.

The 116 chassis’ DeDion tracked as faithfully as the old solid axle had, but was both better located and more supple. What’s more, the inboard brakes meant that braking torque was fed into the chassis instead of the wheels; all the wheels got was stopped. It’s not magic, but it sure works that way.

I think these competed against cars like the BMW 320i. Nothing against that car, but I think this was a pretty good competitor. Aluminum engine, nice manual transmission, independent rear suspension, and fairly luxurious for the time. I know there was a Mario Andretti edition GTV; but didn’t he also appear in ads for the sedan too?

Compared to cars today, this will not ‘show’ well; but then it was a pretty serious sports sedan.

I own a 1985 Alfa 6 Turbodiesel here in California . I don’t think it’s ugly at all, it’s, well……, different. LOL. It was always one of my cars to have and it took me several years to finally find it in Rome, Italy.

The Alfa Sei was developed in the 70s and it was Alfa’s flagship. They even sent a couple of cars to the USA to be certified. Unfortunately Alfa pulled the plug in the last moment and they never made it here. They were never very popular in Europe either and the last one was built in 1985. Very few have survived. I think my TD is the only one in the states.

You would be suprised how nice it cruises on the freeways and the handling is excellent for a car that size from that era. If you compare it to a domestic car from the 70s, it’s way above them.

Now a Lancia will be one of my next “weird” cars. A Lancia Thesis. They are very affordable now in Europe.

If a car that is said to have been run by a professional repair shop, that had 5K poured into recently, comes out looking like that it is only proof, that you can’t save this species from composting itself.

Some might want to save an Alfetta for the rarity, but it is within good reason, that those started to become donor cars for 60ies Alfas by ca. 1984…

@ Will Owen An Alfetta GT with a 2.0 doesn’t do much more than keep up with traffic either. I was thinking of previous generations of Alfa’s when I wrote smaller cars, not its contemporaries. No doubt the handling is suberb for its time though, bet you hang alot of “faster” cars up to dry through the corners.

I can quite easily find a couple of GTV6’s in this condition at the same price. Locally even. These are not rare in terms of production numbers, not pretty in terms of popular opinion and its in a pretty tired state nearly everywhere you look with rust, cracked dash, torn seats. And pictures normally hide flaws well when they are out of focus with intense backlighting…

Unless 2/3 of the claimed $5000 worth of recent work was hourly rates at an Alfa specialist I’m sure it’ll be worth it just to strip it for parts even at this point.

I’ve driven Alfettas my whole life, both sedans and coupes. For long road trips, the sedan is better. Great visibility, comfortable seats, sublime ride, cruse all day at 4ooo RPM = 80MPH. Upgrading to GTV-6 torsion bars, rear springs and sway bars eliminates the too soft ride and body roll. Remove emissions crap, (Ohio doesn’t inspect) and performance is adequate. I take issue with Spica critics. A correctly tuned pump will perform flawlessly, unfortunately, most injection systems we “fixed” by owners that had no idea how to adjust the pump or linkage so the cars ran, but ran poorly. I too prefer the US round headlights. By the way, the side trim is factory on both sedans and coupe in 78 and 79. Why is that all the sedans are 78’s and the coupes are 79’s?

Three grand is good here. Strip the wheels, paint them silver, then do a quick and dirty fix on the rusty rear fender, and you’ll have a good-looking and interesting daily driver. If it all falls horribly apart after a few years, at least you have the engine and gearbox to flog.

@ Laupstad: “The engine is great in smaller cars, I just get the feeling that in this car it’ll just be another bland daily driver that just keeps up with traffic. Too much car for the engine to work with.”

Common mistake is to assume the sedans won’t perform with the sports models. As it turns out, the first Alfetta sedans weighed in at around 2200 lb, or about the same as the Spider and the Alfetta GT. This one is a bit cushier and has Federal bumpers, though the sports models did too, so that’s a wash. Aerodynamically, the sedans were typically better than the Spider, though the new GT was a lot more slippery than the old GTV. As for over-the-road performance, about the only thing slowing this down relative to the others would be putting someone in each seat … I remember an impromptu duel between my 2000 Berlina and a 240Z on a nice Tennessee back road. He probably had some top end on me, but he could not get by until I figured I’d better let him. And Yes, there were some curves in there.

I’ll copy and paste what I said about the 1971 Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina listed on the 11th.

In early October I bought a 1979 Alfa Sport Sedan with 44,000 original miles in amazing original condition for $7500. Bought it from gentleman who’s owned around 15 Alfas, plus Fiats and Ferraris. This is my first Italian car. I’ve had several British roadsters and owned my 1965 Healey 3000 for 26 years. I live in Seattle. What sold me on this style of Alfa was first the condition, but also the fact that Wes Ingram enterprises is about an hour away from my house. The car came with a 3-ring binder of records dating back to new, and one of those recent receipts was a inspection by Ingram stating the SPICA system was in correct working order.

I’ve been using this car as a weekend driver for the past month and it’s been great! Since the entire car was inspected and all systems serviced I feel confident it will continue being dependable.

Drove it today and just love it! I agree the styling is bland, but the engine is the thing.

I failed to mention on my other post the last owner (who’s had dozens of Italian cars) removed all the smog equipment my car came with. Seems to help performance. Nice snarly exhause note.

I was hoping they’d atleast put a good looking interior in it, but it seems they went for the Commie-look there as well. Those seats atleast look comfy! Seems that even Alfa Romeo needs outside help with designs when this is what results when they try on their own. All the grace and beauty of a gulag outhouse.

Alfa Romeo has made alot of great cars but this one fails to stir my soul.

There are some nice details though. The engine is great in smaller cars, I just get the feeling that in this car it’ll just be another bland daily driver that just keeps up with traffic. Too much car for the engine to work with. The wheels are glorious, the centre exhaust is pretty naughty, those seats looks unbeliavably comfortable and head-on it does look rather nice (Read: Evil) in a Pininfarina sort of way. But I’m one of those wierd people that like what Pininfarina did with Peugeots during that period and the following 15-20 years, so I don’t know if it counts.

Regardless of my opinions though, this one is gonna need some work immediatly or you’ll have nothing but a parts car in a year.

I have had a bunch of these. The Spica is lousy, but the combination of nice ride and great handling is unique. They are very comfortable to drive, but very sporty. No BMW or MBZ feels similar. Yes those wheels are my favorite on the sedans, but as others note, they are rust buckets

@ Varjak: When they were planning the 75/Milano, they wanted to re-use as much of the Nuova Giulietta’s pressings as they could, particularly the expensive doors and door frames. The big problem was that the Giulietta’s boot was not big enough for a car of the 75’s class, but they didn’t want to make it stick out much more either. So they raised its top deck up higher over the back window and kinked that rub strip to kick up to meet the raised back edge. I’m not unhappy with the result at all; I think it’s a bit of weirdness that somehow works. It’s certainly more interesting than the Giulietta, especially from the rear, and we’ve been grateful for that generous depth several times.

Some of you guys fail realize that this is a 1978 Alfa – unbelievable technology for the day. And for the less informed posters….these cars always had serious rust issues, especially the early cars (75 &76) where they were rusting at the POE! Many of these Alfetta’s had serious rust issues in the front inner fenders. Most were not saved or restored which makes this a survivor as the ebay ad states. AND… anyone who thinks this is a parts car is on the wrong website! Lastly, if you are really an Alfisti, you know that there really is no such thing as a “rustfree” Alfa. As far as the comment on the GTV6 on the Alfabb. It’s about supply and demand…plenty of GTV6’s and very few 4 door sedan options especially if you don’t want a Milano or 164. To each his own.

Will, the 2nd series Alfa 6 looks pretty good to me. Maybe not as reliable as a Mercedes of BMW of that era; but nice enough. I don’t understand the ‘kink’ comment. The Nuova Giulietta didn’t have a kink?

The Nuova Giulietta was developed into the 75/Milano, which is how that car got the kink in its beltline. By all accounts it was a nice little bus. The Alfa 6 not so much. What’s interesting to a lot of us was that though the Alfa 6 used the DeDion rear axle, it had its gearbox in the conventional location, meaning that there is a version of that 6-cylinder engine with a bellhousing, clutch and tranny, just waiting to be dropped into a Spider or GTV … and several have done so.

I spent some time last weekend in the company of a couple of Twin Spark engines, thinking beautiful thoughts about one of those in either the Alfetta or Milano. Yum yum.

I’ve always liked these; but eBay turns up better examples fairly often. It was such an impressive car for the time, although all the typical little niggling things would undermine their attractiveness.

Personally, I like the looks of the Alfa 6 and even the ‘Nuova Giulietta;’ both of which share elements with these Alfetta sedans and the Sports Sedan.

For someone whos claims to be a “DEEPLY entrenched Alfa fan” you sure know how to make yourself look completely oblivious regarding Alfas with a statement like “Late 70?s Alfas were almost universally long in the tooth evolutions of 60?s sometimes 50?s platforms”.

Luckily Will Owen already took the time to educate you on something a true “Alfa fan” would have already known, which is that the Alfettas transaxle chassis was nothing short of revolutionary for saloon cars when it first came out. I owned four Alfettas of varying modelyears and i still remember it as one of the best handling saloon cars i’ve ever driven, not just of it’s time.

Do yourself a favour and educate yourself some more on the subject, instead of wasting our collective time by posting unfactual nonsense please.

105allday: To itch his own. To me these are simply nice looking sedans that combine cruising comfort with some serious road-eating abilities, or in other words typical Alfas. A good early Alfetta sedan – pre-Sports Sedan, that is, and no later than ’75 – could probably prompt me to sell that gorgeous GT for several reasons, not the least being that I prefer cars that do not attract undue attention from the CHP. This one is too recent and too far away, and I love neither the color nor the prospect of getting that inexcusable black paint off the wheels – who on earth thinks blue and black look good together?

If you are an Alfisti, and want a four door sedan, the options are limited. 164’s and Milano’s are nightmares to maintain and one major repair is about the value of the car! I love the looks of the Alfetta, and they really are quite rare. I like this one and think it’s a lot of style for the money. Very Italian!

Dunno about this car, but it is a late model Alfetta so nice wheels. Looks quite rusty and crusty.

I drove a 76 for years. Great car, I traded a motorcycle for it. Once I owned it someone gave me a parts car, which came in super handy many times. Years went by and I sold it to a guy who did body work for a living. He and his wife loved the car. When they got divorced the guy got the car, but only after giving up just about everything else they owned for the car. I asked him about it and he said “at least i got the car”. Yeah it was THAT good! :)

@ 105allday: Far from being an extended development of the “long in the tooth” platforms, the Alfetta was the first in the line of the new transaxle/DeDion chassis that gave both nimbler, more sure-footed handling and a more supple ride than the Giuls platform preceding it. The only carryover was the engine, which however “ancient” in automotive terms was still in many ways superior to those of its immediate rivals, very much including BMW. Having driven both, I’d say the chassis was much better as well.

The only problem for us over here is the anti-smog crap that strangled the 2-liter from its previous 130 hp to 111, and even less in California. Also, the shift linkage was typically imprecise and frustrating, even after the improvements applied to the GTV-6 and Milano, but that can be rectified. My Alfetta GT’s linkage is akin to a good rifle bolt in feel, which surprised and delighted me on our maiden trip home.

I am a deeply DEEPLY entrenched Alfa fan, my tastes are not limited to the greatest hits and this still doesn’t do anything for me. Late 70’s Alfas were almost universally long in the tooth evolutions of 60’s sometimes 50’s platforms. Intellectually I love that Alfa committed to an engine and chassis and developed them for so long, but you won’t find me bidding on an Alfetta.

Finally an Alfetta! I didn’t think there were any left. In my eyes these are not uglier than an GTV-6, honestly. They’re just more practial, and that can be a beautiful thing. As any Alfa from the 70’s they rust terribly and these later models are not, as someone mentioned, as slender as the earlier ones. But this is a lot of car for the money, and a true Alfa in terms of handling and joy.

Italian sedans tend to be pretty plain. You also have to remember this came from the time when wealth or driving something flashy was something you didn’t want to do what with the Red Brigade bombing and knee-capping Italians! They are also the choice of the Carabinieri!

I think some of you guys are being too tough on this little Alfetta. You’re looking at a fairly rough driver here, but it’s not pretending to be anything else. Maechanics look pretty solid and it will certainly bring some Alfa smiles (and possibly a few cuss words too) for very little bucks. Sure it’s got some rust issues, but I’ll bet you’re years away from ending up with your butt on the pavement. Don’t like the rust? – just grind it away and shmear some bondo in just like the pros. That should hide it again for a little while. It ain’t a concours candidate, but we’ve had far worse beasts cross these pages – show some it love…..

I drove a car like this from 79 to 84. Sold it to my father in law who kept it going for 4 or 5 more years until it rusted away, probably 150k total in its life. Great car with a wonderful burbling exhaust note. The cloth seats were just fabulous. Mine was a blue with more of a purple tint to it, not close to this color. Interior was the same though. I always look for them as well as the earlier Alfettas which have the more classic dash. The sport sedans were 78-79 models only as I recall, followed by the Milano which became a bit more funkified.

Not getting the comments against the general design, but I expect that’s just general anti-sedan bias. I think it’s a good looking car and it reminds me of a BMW e12. People are likely less forgiving of sedan requirements on an Alfa, but hey, Italians had families too, right?

This example does look pretty rough, and I too would be looking for a nicer and non-rusty version as a starting point.

Actually owned one of these in maroon with tan leather and A/C. The black wheels detract significantly from the appearance of the car as does the chrome side mirrors. The dual round headlights, IMHO, look more attractive than the Euro squares. Not the fastest car in the world but well made and satisfying to drive. Was recently reminded of how it handled after sliding my Z4 over 2 lanes after exiting a decreasing radius entrance ramp, 50/50 weight distribution is awesome once you get used to it.

I’d buy this one for those awesomely beautiful Campag mag-wheels alone…!! :-)

On a serious note though, I’d actually love to own an Alfetta, but I’d definitely be looking for an early (’72 – ’74) narrow-grill Alfetta 1.6 preferably in corn yellow. The real Alfisti will probably tell me the proper name of this color… But these early models are just soooo much prettier. A simpler, lighter and more sharming design.

I’ve seen this come up for sale locally several times over the past couple of years, and I think I even tossed a bid on one of the previous ebay auctions. It seems like it just can’t find a new, loving home. How sad.

I have owned a couple of Alfetta Sedans and they are great cars – nice to drive, roomy, comfortable and still decidedly sporty. Others may complain about driving position or the balky gear shift but that never put me off, I just always felt good behind the steering wheel. But this one leaves me rather cold. It just seems too ratty. Rust, poor interior, absolutely awful aftermarket side trim. As they are never worth much money, I’d try to start with a better car that someone else has already freshened.

It’s Cameron’s POS from Ferris Bueller’s day off. This car has actually been listed on ebay. This very same car was listed on Ebay back in April with the very same picture.

I blogged this about it at the time:

Ferris called it a piece of excrement. We beg to differ. We don’t know with a certainty which model Alfa it was that the character of Cameron had in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off but we do know it was similar to this Alfetta Sport Sedan in Novi, Michigan currently offered on Ebay. Now is your chance to be the envy of the cool kid with no car… as well as informed Mondo Motorists the world over. Bidding at the time of this post was at $2000 with over 8 days to go.